What is storytelling?

Lately I’ve been hearing/reading the expression “telling the story” or “story telling to fight injustice,” “the narrative,” . . . as in  “young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced.”  https://pj.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2016/06/06/making-change-by-changing-the-story/

Really?  That’s all it takes? When I watched Christiane Amanpour interview the British woman last night, the Brit used the expression about “telling our story” several times.  I have no idea what that means other than entertainment value like the “moth porch stories” we’ve begun at Lakeside, or listening to learn more about family.

“The goal [of a non-profit for young people] is to creating programming that allows for young people to tell the story of “what it is to grow up economically poor, Black and brown in this country, to be educated in poor schools, to be in communities that are inundated with drugs and violence, but to overcome that.” That ability to take back the narrative of who they are develops a strong sense of empowerment within young people that allows them to “form a moral and ethical code – who they are as young people – helps them become leaders and social change makers” in a cycle that continues to fight poverty decade after decade. These youth then end up seeking out roles in their communities and abroad, continuing the narrative that young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced."

Twenty five years ago I had prepared a family story and cook book for a Corbett reunion, and was chatting with my Aunt Lois who died two weeks ago at 92.  Different members had brought along old photographs to share, and there was one of her in the late 1930s, heighth of the Great Depression. She looked fabulous.   I made a comment about the family being poor, and she laughed (she had the greatest laugh in the whole family) and said—“We had no idea we were poor.  In the Depression everyone was poor.”

So I’m wondering how encouraging children to look at their homes, schools and neighborhoods as being victims of a cruel society helps them achieve, get good jobs, find the right life partner, and raise a family.

Saving these lives gets no peace prize or international praise

"I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions. And I think those are the kind of policies that the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy, and really the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life. It's the founding conviction of our country, that we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Karen Hughes, former Bush adviser, speaking on CNN April 24, 2004.

But the No-bel judges were correct in stating that Obama had caught the world's attention--during the long campaign and his 10 months in office he talks mostly about himself (which may have cost Chicago the Olympics), which necessarily deceases the emphasis on the United States, which enormously pleases both our enemies and envious friends. Link.

No narrative

That's why Obama is in free fall.

"No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience." Geoffrey P. Hunt, American Thinker

Oh, he has a narrative all right. I read it all the time in editorials of professional and academic journals and see and hear it from the talking heads of the MSM. But it's not personal and doesn't connect with you and me; but does with many. It's the drumbeat narrative of the left--America suffers spiritually and psychologically under capitalism; we're like a Soros funded bad movie--a sinister influence in the world; the War on Terror is a fraud; terrorists are misunderstood freedom fighters; markets are fundamentally unjust. Americans distrust their government and authority in general; we reject universal health care because we are mean and opportunistic; we are immoral to care about the individual; we care about outcomes and investments and don't see society as a whole. Americans are bad because they rebel against their Mother--Earth. Only America and Somalia have rejected the UN convention on the Rights of Children, yada yada. A just society depends on collective wisdom. Castro is a good, kind decent man who only took property from the rich to elevate the poor workers, and it was rightfully theirs. Chavez too. Just an old sweety. The unborn and the elderly cannot contribute to the greater good and are therefore expendable. Only community should be considered, never money or financial gain for the individual (bureaucrats and politicians excepted, of course). Only national leadership in all sectors of society and morality can pull us out of our ethical cesspool of aggression and outdated biblical beliefs of right and wrong.

Oh yes, there's a narrative all right, and unfortunately Mr. Hunt, it resonates with a lot of Americans who still support him and who will insist you're talking about his race and not culture or beliefs or character.